At one point it was assumed that the Alien and Predator franchises were in fact one franchise. Thanks to comics and video games, Alien vs. Predator was a massive juggernaut, but it didn’t jump to the big screen until 2004 with the release of AVP: Alien vs. Predator. It was official that both of 20th Century Fox’s massively popular horror franchises were now one. But as of now, there hasn’t been another crossover film since 2007 with Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. Both franchises have continued beyond yet the AVP films have felt like a simple blip in the timeline, rather than a massive sea change. This has led many to wonder if the AVP films are still canon.

While 1990’s Predator 2 would be the first on-screen hint at a potential connective universe, the first crossover actually happened a few months prior in 1989 in the pages of Dark Horse Presents, an anthology comic book published by Dark Horse Comics that featured three consecutive stories written by Randy Stradley with art by Phill Norwood. The final of the three stories revealed that it was a prelude to a comic simply titled Alien vs. Predator and included Chris Warner (who was the artist on Dark Horse’ Predator comics). This series was the beginning of the Machiko Noguchi saga which followed a young girl rescued from a colony overrun with Xemomorphs and then trained by Predators to become one of them. The success of this comic would lead to dozens more and eventually a thriving video game franchise that lasted from 1993 to 2010.

Due to the success of the comics and video games, fans were eager to see a big screen version. 20th Century Fox began pursuing a film version by commissioning a script by Peter Briggs, who would go on to write the first Hellboy movie, in 1991. In response, Ridley Scott, who was at one point interested in directing Alien 3 reportedly turned it down because he didn’t like the idea of Alien vs Predator. Rumors also seem to imply that Fox’s desire for a crossover was one of the many reasons that led to Sigourney Weaver demanding her character, Ripley, be killed off in Alien 3. Despite all this, the film would sit in development hell for more than a decade before Paul W.S. Anderson came on board to see the film reach the finish line in 2004. While AVP: Alien vs. Predator was a success for both franchises, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem was not and derailed any future crossover plans.

Since Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, directed by Colin and Greg Strause, failed with both critics and audiences (12% and 30% on Rotten Tomatoes respectively), 20th Century Fox decided not to move forward with a third film that would have seen the franchise move into the far future. Instead the studio moved forward with new entries in each respective franchise. This manifested due to the financially disappointing releases of Predators (2010) and the divisive Prometheus (2012). In the minds of 20th Century Fox (before Disney bought them), and more specifically, Ridley Scott, the Alien and Predator franchises had a divorce and were no longer considered to be a connected franchise. Unfortunately, Ridley Scott was not interested in any crossover potential. He elected to return to the Alien franchise (after much coaxing) with a prequel to Alien that would become Prometheus. The film's promise was to explain where the fabled “Space Jockey” came from and by extension the origins of the Xenomorphs. Regrettably, Scott wasn’t interested in telling that story either and opted to make a yet far grander tale of the origin of humanity that may or may not also serve as an origin to the Xenomorphs. While he would attempt to course correct this with Alien: Covenant, telling what many believe to be the origin of the Xenomorph, the story that both films tell is one that makes any connection to the Predator films all but impossible.

David (Michael Fassbender) in his lab - *Alien: Covenant*

This disconnecting of two franchises only went one direction and was not true for Predator. AVP has a long history of referencing its sister horror franchise that goes back to the aforementioned 1990s film Predator 2 and a cancelled third AVP film wasn’t going to stop them. While Predators doesn’t have any references to Alien, The Predator has a very interesting one. Located in Project Stargazer is the spear that Scar (the surviving predator from AVP) gave to Lex (Sanaa Lathan) to help her fight her way out of the pyramid. It’s not even subtle as the camera lingers on it for quite some time. Predator: Killer of Killers may also have a reference in the form of bone tails from Aliens that form a cape for the Grendel King. But the most overt reference is yet to come in Predator: Badlands. Elle Fanning’s character Thia is a Weyland/Yutani android. A reference on this scale has never been seen before in this franchise. This proves one thing about the canonicity of the AVP films: They are only canon to the Predator franchise.

Thia (Elle Fanning) in *Predator: Badlands*

But is that true?

There’s a few reasons why it would be hard to fit Alien vs. Predator films into the cannon of the Alien franchise. Interestingly, both AVP: Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator introduced the founders of the mega corporation Weyland/Yutani before Prometheus did the same thing. As fans, connections can be found, but there’s some pretty heavy mental gymnastics that need to happen. Shortly after the release of Prometheus, Dark Horse Comics published a massive crossover called Fire & Stone. This series spanned four mini-series titled Prometheus: Fire & Stone, Predator: Fire & Stone, Aliens: Fire & Stone, and Alien vs. Predator: Fire & Stone. The goal was to reconnect the two franchises through the lens of Prometheus, or at least try. It was a valiant effort and features some great horror moments as the Predator goes up against the new elements of Alien lore introduced in Prometheus. Ultimately it did not land with readers in any meaningful way though. So on the surface it looks like Predator cannot connect with the Alien franchise as Prometheus and Alien: Covenant seem to stand in the way.

Thematically speaking, it’s almost impossible to imagine the two connecting now anyway. Like most horror movies, the Alien franchise used to have some light at the end of the tunnel. Both Alien and Aliens end in a hopeful way for Ripley. Even Alien: Resurrection doesn’t portray the franchise as a hopeless universe. Alien 3 was the outlier until Prometheus. But thanks to Ridley Scott's prequel duology, the Alien franchise is now a universe devoid of hope. Something that Alien: Romulus builds on, built from the very ground up to be about the futility of mankind. Our very creators sought to wipe us out after sending a “savior” who was killed (Jesus was an Engineer, Google it). The Alien exists to punish mankind in an ever repeating cycle that you can’t escape from. It’s in the very DNA of the Alien universe. Conversely, the Predator franchise is more action than horror. Often relying on heroes beating the Predators and going home (unless you’re the sore loser clan from Predator: Killer of Killers). Sometimes the Predators may even respect you and treat you with honor. It’s hard to imagine the two being able to connect.

Interestingly, AVP: Alien vs. Predator details that the Predators have a long history on Earth. They were worshiped like gods and taught ancient people how to build pyramids. It doesn’t seem likely that this would be the case where Jesus was an 8 foot pale alien and the first “facehugger” was born from a woman in the year 2093. Again, maybe there’s some mental gymnastics that can be done without retconning any film. There’s enough subtext in both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant to suggest that David didn’t create the Alien, he recreated it. Ridley Scott wasn’t interested in telling the origin of the Alien, and perhaps he didn’t. Instead detailed the story of a madman stumbling onto something that the Engineers tried to lock away centuries ago. Also, while slightly racist to humanity's ancestors, a Predator clan could have positioned themselves as gods while others were more interested in hunting humans for sport. So now what once seemed like two disconnected franchises, now appear to be connected again.

There’s even renewed interest in a crossover as both Fede Alverez (director of Alien: Romulus) and Dan Trachtenberg (director of Prey and Predator: Badlands) have both talked about their willingness.. It’s not hard to believe that Trachtenberg would be willing considering the references to Alien that he’s included in both 2025 Predator films. There was even interest from 20th Century Fox before being swallowed by Disney, as it was revealed that there was a completed anime series based on Alien vs. Predator. This series will likely never see the light of day, but one could hope that some good samaritan at the Disney vault will get it out there to the fans eager to see it. When discussing the new Predator movies and the sequel to Alien: Romulus, 20th Century Studios President Steve Asbell, said that a crossover is likely to happen but will only happen organically from both. With the Predator franchise jumping into the far future with Predator: Badlands, could that be the first step in setting up this epic rematch?

If you’re a strict canon junkie, then it’s clearly not possible that the AVP films are connected to both franchises. As the Alien franchise continued, it grew further away from its sister franchise, while Predator continued in a grand tradition of references. It makes far more sense that the films are canon only to Predator. The relationship has always been one sided and it only makes sense for Predator to get the films in the divorce. But a reconciliation could be on the horizon and at the end of the day, canon is what you, the audience, deem it to be.

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Are The Alien Vs. Predator Films Canon?